We are sad to report the recent loss of our friend and colleague in mining journalism, Ricardo Cortes, one of the Founders of Editec SA, the publisher of Mineria Chilena, who passed away December 13, 2020.

Ricardo was born in 1945 and grew up in the Chuquicamata copper mining camp, where his father was a doctor at the hospital. He studied journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and then had experience working in the communications team at ​​Sociedad Minera El Salvador in the Atacama Region.

By the mid-1970s, his professional life would become linked to the history of Editec, the beginnings of which go back to a meeting between Ricardo and Roly Solis (a journalist trained at the University of Chile), who were then working at Chilectra and Entel, respectively. Both agreed on the common concern of publishing a technical mining journal and Mineria Chilena began publishing in 1980. Before that time, the mining magazines that circulated in Chile were scarce and all ended up being discontinued.

Ricardo himself stated: “The idea was to form a publishing company with the aim of producing mainly its own specialised magazines, with the firm commitment of developing a magazine that was serious, independent, non-political and continuous. It would circulate in all the companies in the sector – not just copper – and other areas related to mining.”

And what a huge success Mineria Chilena turned out to be for 40 years and counting, led by a man who was at the same time professional and dedicated but also having a great sense of humour and supported throughout his career by his wife Marta Veronica Loyola, also a journalist and their four daughters.